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Brain Infarct Segmentation and Registration on MRI or CT for Lesion-symptom Mapping
Published on: September 25, 2019
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Lesions causing aphantasia are connected to the fusiform imagery node
Julian Kutsche1, Calvin Howard2, Alberto Castro Palacin3
1Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Department of Philosophy, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Summary
Aphantasia, the inability to visualize mentally, is linked to brain function. Lesions causing acquired aphantasia connect to the left fusiform imagery node, crucial for visual mental imagery.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Aphantasia, the congenital absence of visual mental imagery, affects up to 3% of the population.
- The precise brain regions underlying aphantasia and visual mental imagery remain largely unknown.
- Acquired aphantasia due to brain lesions offers a unique window into the neuroanatomy of visual mental imagery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify the neuroanatomical correlates of acquired aphantasia.
- To investigate the role of the fusiform imagery node in visual mental imagery.
- To establish causal links between specific brain regions and the capacity for visual mental imagery.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature review to identify cases of lesion-induced aphantasia.
- Lesion mapping onto a common brain atlas and comparison with control lesions.
- Analysis of functional connectivity between lesion sites and the fusiform imagery node using resting-state fMRI data.
- Data-driven whole-brain lesion connectivity analysis for sensitivity and specificity.
Main Results:
- Twelve cases of acquired aphantasia due to brain lesions were identified.
- Lesion locations, while diverse, consistently showed functional connectivity to the left fusiform imagery node.
- Connectivity to the fusiform imagery node was a sensitive and specific marker for aphantasia.
Conclusions:
- Acquired aphantasia results from lesions in various brain areas, but all are functionally linked to the left fusiform imagery node.
- This study provides causal evidence for the fusiform imagery node's critical role in visual mental imagery.
- Findings advance our understanding of the neural basis of visual mental imagery and aphantasia.
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